Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Post Camp

My super secret knitting is done, but I've had a lapse of judgement and signed up to do a rush test knit as well. At least there are others that are test knitting with me, so if I punt by the deadline, the designer's good with other feedback.

So that means I have nothing new to show except a few remaining things that are Sock Camp related. The end of Camp was my Monkey1's birthday so that day was spent knitting her a little gift, the Tutu Mouse kit from Churchmouse Yarns & Teas, the totally adorable yarn store on Bainbridge Island that we visited on the way to Camp.

The kit contained one skein of pink GGH Soft Kid, the Mouse, the matching ribbon, a set of size 10.5 straights & a tapestry needle. Marcy and I both bought the kit for our respective childrens' birthdays. However, since we didn't think we needed the tapestry needle & the straight needles, Churchmouse was really accomodating and let us switch out those items for the Night Night outfit pattern that they also wrote for the Mouse.

For Cat's new sock architecture class, I chose one of the STR Rare Gems I bought - one of a series of My Blue Heaven related experiments that got overdyed. Next time I pick a yarn for Cat's class, I'll need to pick something a bit lighter. Made for reading my stitches a little tough sometimes in the cloudy Washington lighting.

I got all the way to the leg during Camp since there are a few critical points that we needed to check in with her. I then stopped 'cause I was undecided on the pattern for the leg. I've narrowed it down to 2 elements, both coincidently from her New Pathways for Sock Knitters.

Lastly, I just finished my ipod sock that we started at Camp. It was Cat's idea that for our extra-curricular activity that we take a bit of STR heavyweight yarn provided to us (mine's Thraven) to make either a cell phone or mp3 player case using techniques we covered at Camp. It was a total blast knitting something without a pattern and just winging it.

So I started with Judy's Magic Cast On with a little refresher from Cat with a little story that somehow involved a burglar. Some practiced the Turkish Cast On that she taught us in her actual class. The case ended with an i-cord bind off that flowed into the i-cord strap. I added the pocket after Camp, but it would've been easier if I had planned ahead and did a little double knitting to start the pocket. Picking up stitches for the pocket gets to be a little fiddly, especially since once again I picked a dark yarn.

I didn't attend camp, but it's nice to live vicariously through those of you who did!I love the yarn the rare gem (and of course I love the Thraven). My FLS is almost complete (only 1/2 of a sleeve to go), and it's in Thraven too!